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In her most creative and instructive cookbook, Julia Child distills a lifetime of cooking into 800 recipes emphasizing lightness, freshness, and simplicity. Chapters are structured around master recipes, followed by innumerable variations that are easily made once the basics are understood. For example, make Julia’s simple but impeccably prepared sauté of chicken, and before long you're easily whipping up Chicken with Mushrooms and Cream, Chicken Provençale, Chicken Pipérade, or Chicken Marengo. Or master her perfect broiled butterflied chicken, and you’ll soon be including Deviled Rabbit or Split Cornish Game Hens Broiled with Cheese on your menu. Here home cooks will find a treasure trove of poultry and fish recipes, as well as a vast array of fresh vegetables prepared in new ways, along with bread doughs and delicious indulgences, such as Caramel Apple Mountain or a Queen of Sheba Chocolate Almond Cake with Chocolate Leaves. And if you want to know how a finished dish should look or how to angle your knife or to fashion a pretty rosette on a cake, there are more than 600 color photographs to entice and instruct you along the way. A brilliant, inspiring, one-of-a-kind, book from the incomparable Julia Child, The Way to Cook is a testament to the satisfactions of good home cooking.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

With The Way to Cook, Julia Child creates a second culinary classic. Her first, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, introduced a generation of those used to preparing simple fare to what was then considered gourmet food, demystified classic techniques, and raised our culinary consciousness. In The Way to Cook, she also demystifies cooking techniques and does some consciousness-raising. This time, though, she speaks to everyone with little or no experience in the kitchen, which is most people these days. Always in tune with the moment, and ever the gracious realist, Child (although calling her Julia seems reasonable since she treats us with such open informality) explains in The Way to Cook how to boil an egg and stuff it, as well as how to make a perfect omelet and an elegant soufflé.

To help out readers who lack the most basic knowledge, she organizes the book by techniques rather than by ingredients. Soups are first, a relatively unintimidating choice to build confidence through delicious results such as true French Onion Soup and a contemporary Black Bean Gazpacho. Next come breads, updated to use a food processor to cut the kneading time. The fish chapter covers broiling a salmon steak and creating a sophisticated Crown Mousse of Trout. Chapters on poultry, meats, vegetables, and desserts are equally ample and wide-ranging.

When The Way to Cook was published in 1989, it accompanied a television series. A related set of videotapes, the first to teach cooking comprehensively, was offered simultaneously. However, more than 600 color photos in this book make it fully complete on its own.

The Way to Cook is a good reference volume, a useful gift, and a handsome way to follow Julia's career as she transformed from a French classicist to the ever-evolving, always clear and reliable teacher we have come to adore. --Dana Jacobi
--This text refers to the Library Binding edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Child's new magnum opus reminds us that she has almost single-handedly inspired the superb quality of modern larders. Without her unflagging commitment to good eating, it is doubtful that fresh duck foie gras would have been available for the saute included here. However, this wonderful book is hardly a paean to elitist fare, maintaining Child's unique perspective while reflecting attitudes about food that "have changed through these last years" and sharing much new knowledge. Recipes, divided into a master formula and variations, are grouped by technique; French classics stand fin-to-wing with American offerings (roast turkey). Dietary concerns are addressed with low-fat soups and a cottage cheese-enriched chicken liver mousse. Nevertheless, the author of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, who would "rather swoon over . . . one small serving of chocolate mousse . . . than indulge one . . . fat-free gelatin puddings," has not gone light. Six hundred handsome photographs underscore Child's technical genius. 110,000 first printing; BOMC main selection. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the Library Binding edition.

Top customer reviews

This is a very large book and it's not the French Chef - but there is a lot here with colorful photos and details on cooking. I've learned a lot and throughly enjoy the book. I use it more as a Q&A and a how to book. Helps me A LOT !!

If you love Julia, you'll love having this book. I am so pleased to have found this copy. The seller included a lovely note which I shall keep with the book. This copy arrived in pristine condition, even though it had been treasured by someone before me. I shall continue the tradition of using and loving this copy of Julia's book. I am very glad I found it and was able to purchase it.

Many of the other reviews here do a really nice job of getting into the details of why this is THE classic cookbook.

I have no real experience in the kitchen and have no real technique as a cook. The great thing about Julia is the way she turns a recipe into a step-by-step process that anyone can follow. You just have to have a little patience. Once you understand a few basic master recipes, like the one for white sauces, or beef bourguignonne, preparing the variations is a no brainer. Before I got this book, I had no idea how to prepare vegetables other than to boil or microwave. Her instructions and processes for preparing vegetables are easy to learn and repeat. After a few times, its like riding a bicycle. Having grown up in the south, foods were fried, and vegetables were cooked in some sort of casserole with cheese or pork fat. The idea of cooking with wine never even crossed my mind. I am still learning, and this book covers so many kinds of dishes I never run out of things to try.

She takes the time to explain what to do when things go wrong, and how to correct common mistakes. The only thing better than having this cookbook is watching the DVDs of her TV shows. If you are willing to spend time in the kitchen, this is a great resource. I didn't know cooking could be so enjoyable.

If you just have but 1 cookbook, this should be the one. Her recipes show you how and in a flawless manner. This is about the basics, techniques, etc. Many of my basic cooking skills and go to recipes are from this book. For example, quiche - flawless. Her veggie techniques. French sauces! Meats! And she includes bread and dessert. I use this book mostly for veggies, meats and quiche. But I intend to try every recipe! Next on the list - her soup bases!

The The Way to Cook definitely teaches a new level of cooking technique. The color photography is fantastic and allows you to see what is being described. It includes many "master" recipes that represent basic cooking techniques that are applied again and again in other recipes. Julia Child includes information on using the food processor to simplify food preparation and provides tips on reducing fat.

I studied several of her books before purchasing and decided on this one because it includes her favorite recipes from her many previous publications such as Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol 1 and 2. This book also includes refinements to the recipes that Julia perfected through the years. It reads like a novel, yet it is funny and so precise I find myself able to visualize the food preparation as I read. The book is entertaining and practical and so very well written that I must say, it is the BEST cookbook I've ever read. Joy of Cooking, I still love you, but the Way to Cook is now at the top of my list!

One of Julia Child's most fundamental books! I got this for my sister, who on her own, is a good basic cook. This was the perfect answer to her culinary questions and, because of the way it is written and laid out, it encourages the reader to go beyond what they may already know. It is written in a way so as to inspire the home cook, and answer questions and provide solutions for when things may not go quite as planned.

Buy this with confidence. Julia Child was (I still have difficulty referring to her in the past-tense) a great chef, a great teacher, and she never was condescending to the reader or to her audience. This is not just a "cook book", it is a full cooking course.